Grant Demaree wants to make military staff "superhuman"
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Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of Onebrief.
Speed matters. Just ask Grant Demaree, the chief executive at Onebrief.
- "We succeed by making military staffs superhuman — faster, smart and more efficient," he told Axios in an interview.
- "Staffs with Onebrief can get their work done a bit over three times as fast as those without," he said. "I think we can enable over 100 times in the coming years."
Why he matters: Demaree is a former U.S. Army officer. Plus, his company's military workflow-and-planning software is used around the world.
Q: When you hear "future of defense," what comes to mind?
A: Decentralized execution — lots of autonomy for each echelon, combatant command down to small unit — has worked well for a long time. I think this will keep working for two to four more years.
Q: When will wars be waged solely by robots?
A: Can be? 2036. Will be? Maybe never.
- Drones are improving rapidly across air, ground, surface and subsurface. It's easy to imagine a war by 2029 where most shooting is done by drones.
- I think military headquarters will be mostly automated by 2029 as well. As will a lot of cyber warfare. The hard part is executing functions that still need hands, like sustainment or manning legacy naval vessels. Humanoid robots unlock that.
- I expect a balance of power in 2036 so lopsided there's not much incentive for large-scale war. I'm more interested in the limited autonomy that dominates the much more dangerous late 2020s.
Q: What region of the world should we be watching? Why?
A: Asia-Pacific. The China hawks in Congress have it right.
- The last 75 years have been the best in the history of the world, because the U.S. was a mostly benign hegemon. A multipolar or China-dominated world won't be so nice.
- It's not just that our biggest threat is in the region. Our interests are there, too: semiconductor production in Taiwan and the bulk of global trade.
- Most senior officials believe the Pacific is the priority, but they only weight the Pacific about 30% above other theaters. They should weight it 10 times the others and be willing to sacrifice readiness elsewhere to achieve deterrence where it matters most.
Q: What time do you wake up? What's the morning routine look like?
A: I wake up around 5am. I'm very energized in the morning. I go to bed at 9pm and don't perform so well at night.
- Workout first. Then a bit of quiet, focused work.
Q: What are you currently reading, or what's a book you'd recommend?
A: Jen Pahlka, who blogs at Eating Policy, has the best mental model I've seen for understanding government customers. Culture eats policy. Civil service culture decides how policy gets implemented. Culture is who gets hired plus what incentives they face.
- So, if you want to get things done in government, focus on hiring and incentives.
Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
A: Enjoy the Army. You'll miss it.
